The Paradox of Elites in Civil Society : A Comparative Study on Civil Society Leaders’ Satisfaction with Democracy in the UK and Sweden
(2024) In Voluntas- Abstract
- The presence of an elite group in civil society elicits a discursive friction between the long-standing normative understanding of civil society, acting as a check on government overreach and autocratic tendencies, and elite theories. Robert Michels’s iron law of oligarchy posits that as individuals rise in the ranks to become organizational leaders, they begin to take on elite attributes, and their priorities align with those of other elites and away from those of their constituents. Michels’s argument echoes with today’s populist anti-elitist rhetoric and the way populism rejects any intermediary bodies between the people and the political leaders, including interest organizations in civil society. As an attempt to empirically probe this... (More)
- The presence of an elite group in civil society elicits a discursive friction between the long-standing normative understanding of civil society, acting as a check on government overreach and autocratic tendencies, and elite theories. Robert Michels’s iron law of oligarchy posits that as individuals rise in the ranks to become organizational leaders, they begin to take on elite attributes, and their priorities align with those of other elites and away from those of their constituents. Michels’s argument echoes with today’s populist anti-elitist rhetoric and the way populism rejects any intermediary bodies between the people and the political leaders, including interest organizations in civil society. As an attempt to empirically probe this theoretical tension, this paper explores satisfaction with the way democracy is working among the top-level leaders of the most well resourced national-level civil society organizations in Sweden and in the UK, drawing on a survey study conducted in 2020–21. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a591c507-2652-4a25-8bb8-62dfbddc44b9
- author
- Baxter, Megan K. ; Lee, Jayeon ; Odai, Minja and Scaramuzzino, Roberto LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-06-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- Civil society leaders, Democracy, Elite, Power, Representation
- in
- Voluntas
- publisher
- Springer
- ISSN
- 0957-8765
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11266-024-00669-0
- project
- Civil society elites? Comparing elite composition, reproduction, integration and contestation in European civil societies
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a591c507-2652-4a25-8bb8-62dfbddc44b9
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-12 08:28:19
- date last changed
- 2024-06-12 09:35:11
@article{a591c507-2652-4a25-8bb8-62dfbddc44b9, abstract = {{The presence of an elite group in civil society elicits a discursive friction between the long-standing normative understanding of civil society, acting as a check on government overreach and autocratic tendencies, and elite theories. Robert Michels’s iron law of oligarchy posits that as individuals rise in the ranks to become organizational leaders, they begin to take on elite attributes, and their priorities align with those of other elites and away from those of their constituents. Michels’s argument echoes with today’s populist anti-elitist rhetoric and the way populism rejects any intermediary bodies between the people and the political leaders, including interest organizations in civil society. As an attempt to empirically probe this theoretical tension, this paper explores satisfaction with the way democracy is working among the top-level leaders of the most well resourced national-level civil society organizations in Sweden and in the UK, drawing on a survey study conducted in 2020–21.}}, author = {{Baxter, Megan K. and Lee, Jayeon and Odai, Minja and Scaramuzzino, Roberto}}, issn = {{0957-8765}}, keywords = {{Civil society leaders; Democracy; Elite; Power; Representation}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{06}}, publisher = {{Springer}}, series = {{Voluntas}}, title = {{The Paradox of Elites in Civil Society : A Comparative Study on Civil Society Leaders’ Satisfaction with Democracy in the UK and Sweden}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11266-024-00669-0}}, doi = {{10.1007/s11266-024-00669-0}}, year = {{2024}}, }